MIDAS XL8 MAKES STAGE DEBUT WITH SISTER ACT
The Midas XL8 digital live performance system is attracting rave reviews for its first live production run on the stage debut of Sister Act, a new musical by Alan Menken that, critics concur, is a Broadway-bound hit. Having completed a sold-out run at the Pasadena Playhouse, the show has transferred to the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta accompanied by FOH Engineer Pierre Dupree and an XL8 deployed by Sound Associates, Inc, whose Carl Casella, Domonic Sack and Wallace Flores completed sound design for the show.
Casella offers some thoughts on how Midas has done digital differently, and for the better. “Until now, I’d yet to hear a digital desk sound as good as analogue,” he says. “With the XL8, Midas has accomplished that mission. And, from a hands-on perspective, the XL8 is a really well thought out. It’s a highly sophisticated piece of equipment, with a vast range of practical features missing on other digital offerings.
“All digital desks ‘work’ in a controlled environment, but we, as engineers, do not. The XL8 was designed with that in mind. Around 175 cues are written into the XL8 for this show, including 28 songs and all the cues for the orchestra. We’re running over 80 inputs, including 24 lavalier mics—it’s a pretty loud show. At any given moment there are no more than two vocal mics, so you’re really mixing. As well as the storage, recall and redundancy power XL8 is packing, its design elements allow the hands-on element of mixing, including on the fly fine-tuning, to remain part of the mix process.”
FOH engineer Pierre Dupree’s house console at the Pasadena Playhouse is a Midas Heritage 2000. “Being a Midas fan, the XL8 completely blew me away: this is a digital console that feels just as good as my favorite Midas,” he says. “The layout and work surface design on XL8 is so intuitive. For example, when I hit the VCA buttons and see instantly what’s on those VCAs, it makes it very easy to find and fix something way down in a mix. Having this much processing power not only means functions are immediate, it allows intuitive, quick recalls for more intuitive blending and mixing. When dealing with 20-plus vocal mics, with many different vocal arrangements per song, it's very hard to get a consistent-sounding mix this quickly on other digital boards. XL8 allows me to get what I need exactly when I need it, without the latency or digging through screens you find on other digital boards. It has all the advantages of massive memory and processing headroom, but still lets me mix like a human being.”
Casella describes some of the XL8’s groundbreaking features. “The POP (population) groups are proving particularly useful; on other boards you need to create groups before you start programming, which causes problems as a sound designer, as you often don’t know what you need until a couple of days into a show.
“Ergonomically speaking, the desk is laid out very nicely, and the colour-coding helps tremendously. Keeping the colour-coding from the XL4 and Heritage consoles was a very smart move, bearing in mind the thousands of engineers who’ve used those boards. Another standout feature is the layout of the fader controls: the ‘A’ and ‘B’ banks allow for dual operation, so, as a designer, I can work on B-levels with access to every channel, and all while the engineer mixes the show. We had three people working on this console while preparing for the show.”
Finally, Casella reserves a special mention for the digital dynamics designed by Console Development Director Alex Cooper. “The preamp and the compression algorithms are the best I’ve ever heard on a digital console,” he says. “The desk doesn’t have a ‘digital’ sound to it at all. When we first powered up the system in Pasadena, we actually stopped in our tracks—the phase cohesiveness was breathtaking. When we put in the first CD, it was as if we were listening to a pair of near-field monitors. And with the live musicians it was even better. If it sounds good, it is good—I don’t need to see meters to know that.”
Contact:
http://www.soundassociates.com
ENDS
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Editors' information:
Midas live performance mixing consoles have been used by the world's most demanding sound engineers, performers and rental companies for three decades. The company strives to raise the standards of sonic quality through its programme of continual research and development, implementing new control functionality and user-friendly desk operation to anticipate and accommodate the ever-evolving needs of audio professionals who specify Midas consoles for their major tours, festivals, international events, broadcast projects and prestigious fixed installations.
Photo caption: Midas XL8 FOH at Atlanta production of Sister Act. FOH engineer Pierre Dupree is shown in pics 1 and 3